A rapper can be just starting out in the industry or riding high off of their success, and no matter where they land on the scale, there are going to be haters with something to say. The Rap world can be a fickle place, and Yung Bleu recalls getting his feet wet in the game and not receiving love from his homestate of Alabama. With a Drake collaboration under his belt and much more to come in the future, the locals are starting to come around, but Bleu remembers those days when he wasn’t embraced by his community.
“It used to be, but now I get nothin’ but love,” the rapper told VladTV. “I feel like it was back when I was the only one really poppin’, so all the attention was on me. All the people really wasn’t used to somebody ridin’ though in a Lambo from Rap, so it was a lot of hate. But once more artists start blowing up, it’s love, like we used to it.”
Bleu said that he doesn “fault” his past critics for coming down on him earlier on in his career before Vlad mentioned that late rapper Doe B., also from Alabama, was “really dope.” Bleu explained that when he was speaking about his experience of being an artist who helped bring attention to Alabama, he was speaking about a specific type of rapper.
“When you say, ‘puttin’ Alabama on the map,’ I’m talkin’ ’bout the streets,” said the rapper. “I’m not really talkin’ ’bout like, what I think of like, the streets, I’m talkin’ ’bout being able to go to any hood. We was doing shows in New York and stuff, sellin’ ’em out in 2017. So, people knew every song off my mixtape.”
“That’s really puttin’ it on the map to me. Maybe people think different, but to me—everybody got they own puttin’ something on the map.” Yung Bleu also stated that when he sat down for interviews in the past, reporters would note that he was “the only one from Alabama.” Vlad added that Gucci Mane is also from the state but Bleu interjected, “He don’t claim that.” Check out the clip below.